Channel Awesome
WOOD!
See the original review here – http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-signs/
Tagged with: 2002 channel awesome doug walker movies nostalgia critic nostalgia critic real thoughts rob walker signs
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Doug, you need to do The Village. Compared to The Village, the twists in Signs are inspired!
Once upon a time, I didn’t mind Signs. Although I thought it was stupid that these aliens was allergic to water and picked a watery planet to invade. Stupid. It was rewatching it a couple years later that I was going “This movie is stupid! Beyond the water thing!”
I loved this review that you originally did as the NC. Especially the scene where you have the subtitles of the aliens talking to each other. That makes me laugh so hard I fall on the floor!
Yeah, those subs are rad.
That’s funny to me Doug only got halfway into Lady in the Water,me and my friends left the theater about 30 minutes in.
This was a good real thoughts.Rob hits the nail on the head,and the PokeHolocaust is fascinating. I can’t think of one character that ever died in that franchise.That’s foreshadowing for being full of shit about Avatar.
He recently tried to justify that movie-you should look it up if you haven’t seen it,it’s not Transformers and it’s for his 8 year old not you were some excuses.
Things I love about The Village:
-The soundtrack
-Bryce Dallas Howard
The cinematography was pretty nice. That’s it. The rest was kind of bad.
Don’t forget Sigourney Weaver. Even if the movie is bad, she always tries. And even in bad movies, I haven’t seen her do too terribly. At her worst, she’s passable
Heard the theory that the “aliens” are actually demons (or fairies) and everyone just assumes they are aliens because they think that makes more sense. Monsters and demons in folklore often have strange weaknesses like that, plus it explains why they don’t have a ship plus their general kidnapping antics (again, monsters and fairies known for taking kids and people).
I think you’re half right. I think Shamalamasama-san-kun based the feel of the aliens off of dark folklore but they’re still aliens. Of course, I could be wrong because I heard this long ago and these are the dumbest freaking aliens ever.
Wait wait wait…are we talking about Signs or Lady in the Water
…and before anyone says anything…I’m merely making a joke
I remember thinking that this movie was okay. Then again, I was like 9. I haven’t seen it since. Also, instead of WOOD!, I would have went with DOOR! I still read magazines. Heck, it’s one of the only things that I DO read. I thought After Earth was okay too. That’s my issue with Shamalyan. It’s all okay.
Of the Shamalyan films, Signs is okay. It’s not “The Happening” (or even “The Last Airbender) terrible, but it’s not “Unbreakable” good (hell, the only movie that gets close to being as good as Unbreakable is Sixth Sense).
Signs is, at least to me, when M. Night (it’s easier to say it that way) started to get ridiculous, but he’s not all the way there.
“Shut your whore mouth!” lol
Am I the only one experiencing a skip at 3:30 from them talking about coming up with the ‘wood’ scene to the media talking about Shyamalan being the next Spielberg?
I actually agree that the build-up is good. The growing paranoia gripped me to a certain point. But you know what would have been great? If in the end it turns out that it was just that, paranoia.
Here’s a bit of a recommendation for you to look at Doug; something still Shyamalan, but not among the usual obvious recommendations like The Village or The Happening, and also pre-sixth sense (IE he’s not even known for his first trope, the whole ‘twist’ ending thing). It’s a little family film that starred (insert joke about crimes against nature here) Rosie O’Donnell called “Wide Awake”. That film too dealt with the same sort of religious theme, losing faith and finding it again, or just finding god in general, but without all of the aliens and WOOD.
I maintain that The Village is a good movie.
I’m curious if they’ve seen Chris Stuckmann’s video on Signs. It’s fascinating, and definitely explains a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Ju05PuiyQ
And seriously, Doug: considering you’re the guy who came up with “movies you disagree with people about,” it seems weird that you stated outright in the Signs review that people who like it “don’t know any better.”
‘Signs’ looks good to the untrained eye the very first viewing. After that . . . IT’S CRAP!
I want more Jeff Goldblum! Bring back ‘Lori Prince Live’ and have him interview Jeff. Or go double Goldblum even and do a show where there’s two Jeff Goldblums talking about all the movies he’s done. I’m sure you two can do something with that. Everytime Rob alters his voice to Goldblum-esque tones that’s all I can think of.
Please satisfy my desire to see you rip Jeff a new one. 😀
I liked this movie. It’s got plot holes the size of Alaska and hokey acting but I like the atmosphere. That said, a word to the aliens;
What the flying fudge, aliens? You have space ships, chameleon powers, invisiblity cloaks, and shields but you don’t have navigation systems to map a planet (you have to use crop circles? seriously?), weapons (their all powerful secondary weakness, WOOD), or any sort of bio hazard suites (you can travel vast distances with amazing technology but you can’t make invisible ergonomic suits?). And what the heck do they need humans for? We’re freaking poison to them (we’re 60% water!) so they probably wont eat us and they don’t want us as slaves (poison gas) so what do you want? Human leather pants?
You should all watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Ju05PuiyQ
You know what was missing with that water thing? He should have had the alien yell “I’M MELLTIIINNNG!”
I felt so weird not liking this back when it came out. It seemed everyone else liked it. But I thought it didn’t make sense during the build up, finally got to something, and then was incredibly stupid.
I’ve never thought of Unbreakable as a bad but still enjoyable movie, I just think it’s a straight up good movie. Great almost, in fact. The Village for me is the “bad, but I still like it” title from Shyamalan.
The Happening is the “so bad it’s funny” one.
Yeah, I was one of those who had issues with “Signs” from the first time I saw it.
At the time I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was a similar problem I had with the American remake of “The Ring”. I got this impression that there was a lot of forced melancholy as if it was trying to don a “scary” coat of paint. And I only found it distracting.
Horror works a lot better when you believe the protagonists could be real people, and the world they live in is not that different from the real world.
Even movies like Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” or Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” begin with a normal world and seemingly normal protagonists so we can really see them descend into madness as the story goes on.
you could give real thoughts on Full House. as someone who’s seen the whole series, it wasn’t as bad as everyone thinks. I really don’t think the plots were exacted any differently then any other sitcom, even, in a way, the dysfunctional family ones. and there was stuff like a story arc for Jesse ending less then ideally and a child abuse episode. and I think them not showing anything in the latter was more a censor issue.
So what’s the Kickstarter campaign address for “The 6th Sign of the Lady in Jupiter Ascending”? Because that’s a campaign I’d consider donating to!
I saw Signs when I was like 11 or 12 and I got pulled in by the atmosphere and scares and thought it was good (I’ll probably have a different opinion if I see it again). The Village is where Shyamalan started to lose me. it made me randomly think of a book we read in elementary school called Running Out of Time during the first half hour or so and I jokingly thought that the twist in that book would be the same one here: Turns out it pretty much was. (If I heard right, the author of the book considered suing Shyamalan but didn’t for some reason).
As the movie went along and the more twists kept popping up, the more disappointed I kept getting. Finally by the end, all the air the movie had was sucked out for me and I was mad. The only thing that kept me through that movie was Bryce Dallas Howard.
Ironically Lady in the Water is my favorite Shyamalan movie so far (Haven’t seen The Sixth Sense, The Happening, The Last Airbender, or After Earth yet). But I like what it was trying to do, like Doug said, where the concept was really an interesting and fascinating one with the story being a modern day urban fairy tale that explored the elements of fairytales and ancient storytelling in general. Yeah, I agree the parts with the critic and Shyamalan playing an “author that will change the world” were pretty stupid and egotistical but they’re fairly minor in my case. The final twist was also a bit goofy too but in the middle of a really awesome and tense final sequence.
Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamiatti were wonderful, the side characters were fun, the music was beautiful and the mythology of the fantasy world sounded kind of interesting. If Shyamalan had spent some time writing a few more drafts or maybe even having another writer help him with it, then I think he could have gotten back on top with that film. (Okay that’s probably wishful thinking but I still liked what he tried to do)
No Doug! You missed the most obvious rip-off! Referring to the universe as “the ‘verse” was a well-known part of Joss Whedon’s sci-fi cult hit, “Firefly”. Within the show it was used in a tongue-in-cheek way and was meant to develop the universe. The Watchowski’s were blatantly stealing references from other fandoms.
I still like this movie just for the build up and tension (as well as Mel Gibson running around screaming “I’m insane with rage!”). I get that being weak to water is a big sticking point for some people, but I’ve read sci-fi stories where the aliens were even more ill-equipped for an invasion of Earth. One Lovecraft story in particular has some odd similarities to Signs. One of the principle characters is holed up in his farmhouse fighting a secret alien invasion for nearly the entire story. The aliens secret weakness: light. Like from the sun. Like from the moon. Like from a street lamp. And if that weren’t enough, John Hurt’s “space between spaces” line from Crystal Skull is a direct pull from that story. It’s… not one of my favorite Lovecraft tales. I got more of the faith angle it was going for too, but since it deals in the ever thorny issue of why bad things happen to good people, it’s certainly going to rub some people the wrong way. It’s not the best treatment of the subject matter, but I got something out of it when I first saw it.
Wasn’t Slumdog the movie that had the main character’s brother threatening to kill him if he didn’t leave and let him rape their new friend in peace? And for the next few years on a constant basis? Also she was damseled literally thruout the entire fucking movie. She never made a single decision without a man being there to say “okay”. Now look, I’m no SJW, I hate the cunts, but even I think that’s just a wee bit ridiculously sexist. Movie made zero sense.
Hey remember “Cookies need love like everything does”
I’d finally managed to get it out of my head and there you went and stomped it back in.
Thanks a lot
*reaches for nearest bottle of brain bleach
And I got nothing else except praise and this personal quote from me “Oh that Shyamalan Oh that talent/acting bender talentless hack son of a bitch of an Indian filmmaker.”